Ed Brown appointed to Senior Leadership post at Lausanne

The following is the text of a newsletter just sent out to friends of Care of Creation Inc. (If you are not on our e-newsletter list, please join us!)
We have some exciting news to share with you! The Lausanne Movement has appointed me as Senior Associate for Creation Care. This appointment represents a new chapter in the history of Care of Creation as an organization, and an exciting opportunity for me personally. It also represents a dramatic advance for the evangelical creation care movement.
Care of Creation was founded with the goal of mobilizing the global church to respond to the environmental crisis; Lausanne is a movement dedicated to mobilizing the global church for world evangelization: Our goals fit together seamlessly. At Care of Creation we have long recognized that we cannot care for God’s creation without first loving God. In fact, one way we describe our mission is to “mobilize the church toward a God-centered response to the environmental crisis.” Our environmental task is effectively discipleship.Lausanne Chairman Rev. Doug Birdsall says of this appointment and Lausanne’s commitment to creation care:

“Ed’s appointment reflects our deep commitment as a Movement to the stewardship of God’s creation and our commitment to seek ways to work together as the global Body of Christ to alleviate the destruction, waste and pollution of earth’s resources.” He adds, “We see this in terms of the Creation Mandate, and in terms of God’s comprehensive redemptive mission, which is cosmic in scope. Our commitment to world evangelization is centered on the salvific work of Christ on the cross. Our commitment to the whole gospel and the whole world also embraces our stewardship of creation as an expression of our love and a demonstration of our obedience to all that Christ has commanded.” (Read the rest of the news release here.)

This appointment and partnership effectively gives Care of Creation a global platform from which to pursue our task, and that is exciting. I am personally gratified by this recognition, of course. And I am more amazed and humbled as I see different parts of my 30 years of ministry life come together. As a “movement”, Lausanne functions through relationships – and it turns out that due to my previous work in missions, with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), and with Au Sable Institute, I already know people throughout the Lausanne network. It is as if God had prepared all of these relationships years before just for this opportunity.

My work with Care of Creation will not change. Lausanne has only a half a dozen employees altogether; everyone else is effectively a volunteer, working through some organization. Thus I will continue to serve as Executive Director of Care of Creation, though I and the rest of the organization will have a broader scope and much greater visibility. God has just given us a global platform for our work, and we look forward to seeing how he chooses to use us in this much larger arena.

This appointment also represents a wonderful advance for creation care as a movement. Never before has a major international evangelical organization taken a step like this. Lausanne has given creation care a seat at the leadership table. My task will be to seek out and mobilize (there’s that word again!) people around the world for a global creation care movement. We’ve already begun this process: In late October we will be convening a Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel, hosted by Lausanne in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance. This consultation will, we are praying, produce plans for a series of creation care conferences around the world.

What can you do to help? Pray with us that God will give grace and wisdom to effectively use the open door in front of us. And partner with us: We will need plenty of financial support to make these things happen, and we would love to have you join us. You can donate by check or online here, selecting “Ed and Susanna Brown” from the drop down box.